An effort to inform potential asylum-seekers that crossing the border is no free ride to a new Canadian life appears to be working as their numbers continue to rapidly dwindle – but the start of the school year is also playing a role. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which is monitoring the reception of asylum seekers at the most popular irregular crossing south of Montreal, says the number of processed claims has plunged to 10-50 on recent days from a peak of several hundred daily arrivals earlier in the summer.

The U.N. refugee agency on Thursday chose as a goodwill ambassador a Syrian teenage girl who helped save a boat carrying fellow refugees and later became an Olympic swimmer. Yusra Mardini joined other notables like actress Cate Blanchett and author Khaled Hosseini in the unpaid advocacy role. UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi said Mardini "represents the hopes, the fears and the incredible potential of the more than 10 million young refugees around the globe."

Education experts and government officials will gather at the Paris headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) from 20 to 24 March, to discuss ways of expanding the use of mobile technologies to “reach people where they are” and improve education opportunities for refugees and displaced persons and others in emergency situations.

Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) are starting to provide broadband hotspots to the communities that are affected, [...] With hotspots, they can actually put targeted information on Web services like where to find asylum, medical assistance, education for children, that side of things. It also gives migrants a secure communications channel to let families know they are safe.

Refugees can be an economic boost, not burden, to the communities that host them, a new study by the United Nations concludes. The benefit is bigger if refugees are given cash stipends instead of food rations, according to a joint project by the World Food Programme and researchers at the University of California Davis. The team studied Congolese refugees living in three different camps in Rwanda.

Uganda is one of the most favourable environments in the world for refugees, according to the UNHCR. While many countries keep refugees in camps away from citizens, Uganda allows them to set up businesses, work for others, and move freely around the country.

This summer one of the UK’s most prestigious universities provided refugees in the UK the opportunity to recharge their academic batteries by attending summer courses on a free bursary. For the third year running, King’s College London has been working in partnership with UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, to offer summer school places to people who have fled persecution and conflict in their home countries. 

The team, comprised of ten refugee athletes from Syria, South Sudan, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, will compete in the Rio 2016 Olympics and march in the Opening Ceremony tomorrow. The International Olympic Committee is funding the team to draw attention to the global refugee crisis. UNHCR released a 90-second film about the refugee athletes today, which is hosted on the organisation’s YouTube page.